The Runaway Dinner by Allan Ahlberg and Bruce Ingman

By Christopher PorterfieldWednesday, Dec. 20, 2006

Usually it's the kids who jump up from the table before the meal is finished. Here the meal runs out the door before little Banjo can eat it, followed by the silverware, plate, table and chair, Banjo and others. As with all runaways, some of the foods in Ahlberg's zany narrative come to a bad end (i.e., get eaten), others take up new lives. The French fries, unnoticed, settle in to watch a baseball game in the park. Will everything end well as Banjo returns home and sits down to his plum pie dessert  or is it footloose too?